Roland Emmerich passed on the movie adaptation of the video game Asteroids

The gamer nation and film-lovers of the world can collectively breathe a sigh of relief today. A movie based on the popular old-school coin-op arcade game Asteroids may still happen, but Independence Day helmer Roland Emmerich won’t be directing it. The rights have been in the hands of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra producer Dino de Laurentiis since 2009.

Emmerich revealed the news in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival with Collider. “I was very honored that they wanted to have me as a director, and I kind of liked the script very much, but at that time I was writing with my writing partner Harold Kloser a new script called Singularity and I opted for that.”

While Singularity is a sci-fi project, it should not be confused with the recently released (summer 2010) Activision video game bearing the same title. He revealed that the story takes place 40 years into the future, with trouble brewing that seems to have some shades of Terminator to it. “It’s like kind of this moment where computer technology is so advanced that we kind of—- It’s the danger of losing control.”

Fine, whatever. I’ll see it. As long as it’s not some silly attempt to cash in on a classic video game that never had nor needed a guiding narrative of any kind.